Kiss of Life
by Pegasus
Summary: You don't HAVE to have read 'Displacement', but it'll help. Anna finds herself in a spot of bother (naturally) and a certain fuzzy elf comes to her rescue...but has he taken on more than he bargained for?


**DISCLAIMER: The characters in this story belong to Marvel. Except Anna. She's mine. So there. No infringement intended, blah,blah,blah. Please, please, please do not reproduce this story in part or in whole anywhere without at least asking me first! Thank you...**

email me at [Sarah.Watkins@onyx.net][1]

**Kiss of Life**

_Authors Note: My first Nightcrawler-centred fic. This story is a natural sequel to the earlier story 'Displacement' which explains how Anna came to be in the Mansion and how she and Remy ended up as a couple. I've never written Nightcrawler before, so if the accent isn't right...sue me. _

**~ ~ ~**

"I can manage, Remy," she said, her mauve-tinted eyes flashing furiously. "I'm a mutant, not an invalid." 

"Whoa, chere, no-one callin' you anyt'in' but," said the Cajun, backing off from her. She was his world, his everything - but she had a sharp edge to her temper that had even him nervous. 

They were in the Danger Room, and the programme running was designed to push Anna's new-found powers to the limit. Remy had insisted on accompanying her, despite her loudly voiced disapproval. She hadn't wanted anyone to come with her, as was her way. "Remy goin' wit' you, chere, like it or not," he'd said, finally. "You still ain't sure how your powers work an' I ain't gon' let you damager yourself. Or th' Danger Room f'r dat matter, you wit' me?" 

And now, three arguments and four days later, here they were, together in the Danger room and Anna had just undergone the trauma of her lungs mutating back to gills in the middle of a fight sequence. She had collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath, before managing to activate the necklace-type device that Hank had fashioned for her, that regulated the airflow into her lungs. Remy had halted the programme, and she was now letting her pent-up rage out at him. 

She finally got to her feet and straightened the wetsuit that was serving as the basis of her newly fashioned X-Men uniform. Mauve piping that matched the hue of her eyes adorned the creation. Despite her wishes, it was tight fitting, emphasising her curves and Remy quietly admired the way she held herself - confident and upright. That wasn't, of course, all he admired - he was, after all, a man. 

"Why did you stop the programme, Remy? I was doing OK, wasn't I?"

"Oui, Anna, but when you collapsed…th' Sentinel's would've broken you into pieces." 

"Then let the sim run its course," she countered. "Maybe there would have been something I could have done to stop it!" 

"But chere…" 

"Resume the programme, Remy. Now!" She got back down on the ground in the same position she had been when she had collapsed.

Losing the will to fight her any more, he raised his hand in mock surrender. "Cerebro, resume programme Psiren 1 from last point." 

"Affirmative." 

The Sentinel was crashing towards her and she stared up into its impassive face, thinking fast. The water in the artificially-created harbour began to swirl and swiftly took on a solidity that still amazed Remy. The column of water immediately took on the shape she had in her mind and the Sentinel, on target to smash her to pieces, took no notice as the water blades reached forward and speared through the robot, immediately short circuiting and electrocuting it as the blades reverted to water form. Scrambling out the way, Anna watched as the Sentinel crashed to the ground, inert. 

"NOW do you trust me?" she said, getting to her feet.

Remy, awestruck, applauded. "Dat was…very impressive, petite. Remy t'ink you got th' makin's of a good X-Man, non?" 

"X-Woman."

"X-Man." 

It was an argument they had constantly, and was harmless. Laughing, they linked arms and left the Danger Room. 

* * *

The Danger Room was one thing. When she was in there, Anna felt free from the constraints of the mansion. She had only had her breathing regulator for a week, and already was keen to go outside. She hadn't been out the doors of the place since Remy and Logan had brought her back, three long months ago. Now, as she stood at the window, looking out, she felt ready. 

The Professor and Remy were trying to dissuade her. 

"You just ain't ready, chere," Remy was saying. "We haven't had a chance t'be sure dat th' regulator even works outside th' buildin'." 

"Listen to Remy, Anna. He is talking sense." 

"Why, t'anks, Professor, dat's prob'ly th' nicest t'ing you've ever said 'bout me."

"Oh, quit joking around, Remy!" Anna glared at him. She loved him, the Gods only knew how much, but there were times…when she could quite happily break his head. He insisted on treating her like a piece of fragile china, when she was fairly certain she wasn't going to break.

"Anna, I understand your frustrations. But we do not yet fully understand your mutation. If we were to let you leave the mansion alone, and something happened - we would all feel bad. Wait, as Remy has suggested. Wait until someone is able to accompany you." 

"Why are you both treating me like I'm a child?" 

"Your mutation came to bear late in life. So in that respect, you ARE a child. Most of us realised we had - differences - in our early teens. You are nineteen years old. You have just come into a world you have never experienced. The outside world will wait for you. We do have rules here, Anna, and this, I'm afraid, is my final word on the subject." He wheeled himself out of the room. 

There was an uncomfortable silence. 

Anna wheeled on Remy and glowered at him. "Well, thanks for sticking up for me." 

"Anna, don' be such a brat." 

Her face drained of colour. "WHAT did you call me?" 

He held up his hands. "You're behavin' like a spoiled child. You can't get your own way dis time. So deal wit' it. Don' sulk like it's th' end of th' world." 

"You just don't GET it, do you?" Her eyes filled with tears. "I feel like I'm a prisoner in this place. I haven't seen outside these walls in three months. I want to be normal, Remy! I want to walk down the street, look in a shop window...eat a donut, for God's sake!" 

His heart filled with pity and he took a step towards her. 

"No!" 

She pulled back from his embrace. "You'll just say something pretty and I'll be suckered in. It's not going to work, Remy! I want this! I want my life back!" 

He tired of the argument and shrugged nonchalantly, heading for the door. "Why don' you jus' go ahead an' do what you want? You usually do anyway." 

He was out the door and gone before she could reply. 

"Fine!" she yelled at the wood of the door. "I'll do just that!"

She flung herself down on her chair and fumed silently for a few moments before reaching a decision. She went to the mirror and checked her appearance, straightening the breathing regulator so it neatly covered her gills and slipping on a spare pair of Remy's shades to cover her eyes. She looked like any other normal young woman: dressed in jeans and a white shirt that had appeared in her wardrobe one morning after Remy... 

Angrily she stopped herself from thinking about him. She was out of here. 

* * * 

The feeling of being in the great outdoors was almost intimidating. Anna felt her breath catch as she inhaled the polluted air that tasted so sweet after three months of recycled oxygen in the mansion. 

She walked along thinking more rationally now about what had just gone on with Remy. She had been jumping down his throat a lot lately, she knew. He was as patient as a saint with her, but he just didn't understand why she felt the way she did. Why she had actually taken to covering up the mirrors in her room rather than see herself reflected in them. 

"You beautiful, chere," he would say, holding her to him. 

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." 

"An' does it?" 

"Yes." 

It was routine. But he didn't UNDERSTAND! Nobody did. She was a freak. Abnormal.

If she hadn't been in such a contemplative mood, Anna probably would have been aware of Sabretooth before he clamped his hand over her mouth, pulling her into the alleyway behind the mansion. 

And if Sabretooth hadn't been in such a smug mood, and had been listening carefully, he would have heard the faint sound of imploding air and smelt the unmistakable smell of brimstone. 

But he was too full of himself. He'd caught an X-Man. 

A figure detached itself from the shadows that made it near invisible and followed them. 

* * * 

"LeBeau will never learn," said Magneto, scrutinising Anna. "If it's not a mutant who can't touch people, it's a mutant with physical aberrations." He looked at her purple hued eyes curiously. "But then he has his own strange appearance to deal with. Like, they say, attracts like." 

Anna struggled a little pointlessly in Sabretooth's grip. The big man stank worse than one of the drunks who had manhandled her at the bar and she was suddenly very afraid of what he could do to her. Remy had told her how he had nearly been eviscerated by Sabretooth's claws.

"Pretty trinket, huh?" said Sabretooth, ripping the regulator from Anna's throat, exposing her gills. Magneto's eyes raised curiously. Sabretooth grinned hungrily. "Well looky what we got here. A mermaid." 

"Don't take that, please," she said, quietly. "I need that to live." 

"Oh? Well, maybe it'll be worth even more then," Magneto smiled a cold, humourless smile. "I should post it to Xavier, shouldn't I? Maybe he'll be prepared to accede to our demands. Victor, all those hours you've spent lurking around the mansion have paid off. You've done a good job. Let's leave her to reflect on the foolishness of her actions." He took the regulator from Sabretooth. "I think I need to send an express parcel to Mr LeBeau..." 

Sabretooth turned in the doorway and gave her a look of such blatant bloodlust that she shrank up against the wall wishing against wish that she could phase through it like Kitty did. 

They left alone her in the semi darkness, where she began to cry, softly. 

* * *

There are two things worse than knowing that death is inevitable. One is waiting for it to happen. 

She didn't know how long she had been in this room, and had no idea how much longer it would be before her gills wanted to take charge. 

The other thing worse than impending death is knowing that the last words you exchanged with someone you loved were harsh ones and the certain knowledge that you will never be able to take them back. 

These were the thoughts that circled around Anna's mind, like a wheel of vultures waiting for the kill. 

When the morphing started, she had already resigned herself to certain death.

It didn't make it any easier, though. 

**BAMF! **

"Take my hand, Fräulein." 

Anna stared up at the apparition with eyes that were bulging with the effort of breathing. She vaguely recalled seeing him around the mansion, but couldn't bring his name to mind. She reached out towards the demonic creature. 

**BAMF!**

* * *

All she could remember afterwards was the rushing sensation of imploding air, and the smell of brimstone. It was like a dream. Vague images rushed past her, as if at the speed of light, and then…she was under water, deep under water regaining control of her breathing. The blue mutant kept his hand tightly wrapped around hers, but she could feel him kicking upwards, struggling. She released his hand and grabbed hold of him, placing her lips to his as she had often done with Remy, breathing life into his lungs. It didn't matter who - or what - he was any more - all that mattered was that he had saved her, and she had to repay the debt. 

Kurt froze at the sensation of another person's lips on his. The mutant known as Nightcrawler had spent many years resigned to the belief that noone would ever become as intimate as this with him and now, the experience both repelled and attracted him. He knew, for he was intelligent, that she was doing what was necessary to ensure his survival, but still…her lithe body wrapped around his blue-furred frame created sensations that he had never before encountered. 

For her part, she looked into his frightened, confused yellow eyes with her own mauve-hinted ones. She saw instantly beyond the frightening, demonic exterior and straight into his heart. And what she saw troubled her. He was like she was. Frighteningly similar. Kicking upwards, she got up to the surface and drew in a lungful of air, breaking the surface with him. 

The upward force of the motion caused Kurt's uniform to tear, but he was too busy concentrating on staying alive to care. 

Anna stared around wildly and saw, with some relief that they were not far from shore and she dove back under the surface, propelling him forward. Still in a state of confusion, Kurt was a dead weight, and it was a lot of effort on her part before they finally reached shore. He crawled out whilst she returned to deeper water. 

They both waited. 

In truth, Kurt had no idea where they were. He had known that Anna needed to be taken to water, and, thinking wildly, remembered glimpsing a huge lake as it hurtled by his vision in the other dimension when teleporting in to her. He had taken her there, not knowing what else to do. This was the first time he had ever been on the other side of the aperture that served as his personal highway through time and space. As he sat on the shore of the lake, his legs drawn into his chest, shivering from the wet and cold, he looked around. 

Naturally curious, and something of a scholar, Kurt was intrigued by what he saw. The lake in which Anna was currently regaining control of herself was, in all ways, no different from some of the mountain lakes he had grown up with. The surrounding scenery, however, was stark in contrast to the mountains. There was…well, no landscape. No hills, no mountains - just the lake, and miles of flat ground as far as the eye could see in all directions. 

His eyes automatically sought the sun, but he realised gradually that there was no sun as he knew it. The whole landscape was infused with a glaring, cold, white light, and it was making his eyes and head hurt. The air was totally still - the surface of the lake may as well have been a mirror, so smooth was it. 

Thus it was, when Anna broke the surface, it was as the Venus emerging. The disruption to the calm of the water was alien, wrong somehow. She swam to shore and lay down next to him, her black curls dripping. 

"Now that," she gasped, "was one hell of a trip." 

She lay on her back for a few seconds, calming down, before sitting up and taking in the blue furred mutant next to her. "I've seen you before, haven't I? Karl?"

"Kurt. Kurt Wagner." He gave her a tight-lipped smile. "They call me 'Nightcrawler'." 

"Oh, very nice, I must say. Well, thanks, Kurt. You probably just saved my life. Seems to be a lot of that happening since I met you guys." 

"No problem, Fräulein. I am glad to be of assistance." 

"Where are we?" 

He'd known she'd ask the question, but he wasn't prepared to answer it. "I am still trying to establish that. I think that we may be in another dimension." 

"Excuse me?" 

"I teleported you out of that prison and into this dimension. It seems, from what the Professor has said in the past, that when I teleport, I go through this dimension. Is usually barely perceptible, but this time…well, I stopped here." 

"Fine, so let's get out of here again. It's creepy." She had taken in the scene and shuddered involuntarily. 

"I don't think it's going to be that simple, Fräulein. I've never actually been here before. I stopped my teleport from completing and I'm not sure if I know how to resume it. If I try teleporting from here, I believe I will end up back here again." 

"Well, try it," she said, her voice taking on a mild note of hysteria. 

"I don't think…" 

"Try it!" she said, her voice rising in pitch. Kurt may have been inexperienced when it came to women, but he recognised that tone. He'd heard it from Jean and Rogue particularly. 

**BAMF! **

Anna stared at the little puff of smoke. 

**BAMF! **

He was back. He opened his yellow eyes, a look of hope on his face that melted into disappointment when he realised he had gone barely ten feet. "Mein gott! I am so sure I saw the mansion!" 

"Kurt, I'm scared." Anna was standing up, her arms wrapped around herself. "I haven't got my breathing regulator, it's cold…I'm scared!" 

Tears stood in her luminous eyes and Kurt's compassion kicked in. Tentatively, he put an arm around her. To his surprise, she didn't pull back from his touch, but buried her face in his shoulder with a sob. "Don't cry, Anna," he said, gently and somewhat awkwardly patting her back. "It will be fine. We will find our way home, God willing." 

God willing? Oh yes. Anna remembered Remy saying once that Kurt was something of a religious fanatic. Strange how one so demonic in appearance could have a faith in a God who, if he existed at all, had done nothing to make Kurt's life any easier. 

"I envy you, Kurt." She wiped at her eyes and stepped back. 

"Envy?" His brow furrowed.

"Yes, envy. You have faith. You believe in something. Everyone at the mansion believes in something - whether it's the Professor, or each other - hell, I don't even believe in myself. It must be nice to have that kind of anchor."

"Well…" he began, but she was opening her heart to him now. 

"I mean, for you, it's easy, isn't it? It isn't a case of 'is there an afterlife' or 'is there a heaven or a hell'. It's just a question of when you're getting there." She sat down on the soft ground and pulled her knees into her chest. "Right now I need something to believe in…and nothing's forthcoming." 

"What about Gambit?" Kurt was surprised at the hint of jealousy that crept into his own voice, and tried to push it back. 

She didn't miss it and turned to look at him, her head cocked on one side. "Remy just goes from day to day by the skin of his teeth," she said. "I envy that, too. He's got no agenda - he just does what he wants, when he wants. Me? I'm…restricted. I only breathe air half the time and, without my regulator…well…I'm just quite literally a fish out of water. I'm a freak." 

Kurt sat down next to her. Nobody had ever opened up to him like this before, especially not someone of the very definitely female persuasion. Perhaps it was something in the atmosphere of this dimension, but he also felt the need to unburden his troubles. 

"You aren't a freak, mein freund. You want to talk about feeling like a freak? Just look at me." 

Anna did so. 

"I think you're kind of cute, actually. Like a fuzzy blue elf." 

He grinned, displaying his razor-sharp teeth. "And that's the other thing they call me. Fuzzy Elf." 

"Better than Nightcrawler. Makes you sound like some sort of insect."

"But seriously, Fräulein…you mustn't think of yourself as a freak. You are able to look beyond my exterior - you must learn to do the same with yourself." 

She gesticulated angrily at her gills. "Every time I look in the mirror, I see these things. And my eyes. And as each day goes by, the old Anna O'Shea is becoming more and more a distant memory. Oh, sure, I have some powers I can play with, but I'd give anything to be normal. Just for a day." 

"You and me both."

She reached over and squeezed his hand. "Let's find a way out of here." 

He squeezed her hand back. It felt good to have someone as open and sweet-natured as Anna with him in this predicament. 

* * *

Several BAMF! attempts later, Kurt was reaching the end of his usually quite long tether. "Mein GOTT! It's just not happening! I just can't open the window to get us into our own dimension." Every time he tried, he moved only a few feet at a time. Anna was sitting, looking thoughtfully at the water. 

"Kurt...because of me and my need for water, I interrupted your teleportation sequence, didn't I?" 

"Ja. This would seem to be true." 

"So if we were to resume teleportation from the point we entered this dimension..." 

"...we would stand a better chance of getting out of here. Fräulein! You are brilliant!" Then his face fell. "But we entered this dimension under water - and the lake is massive. There is no way of telling where we entered." 

She smiled. "X marks the spot," she said, softly, reaching out and touching his torn uniform. Where his stitched 'X' logo should have been, was a gaping hole. He followed her gaze. The mirror-like surface of the lake, untouched by ripple or wave was marred by a single object not far out from shore. Resting gently on the top of the water floated the missing emblem. 

Without any breath of air to push it away, the material had simply floated to the surface and stayed where it had come from. 

Kurt muttered "dank" to no-one in particular. "So we wait until you get your gills back, and head out to the point of entry...and try."

"Looks that way," she said. "I couldn't tell you how long it's going to be, though. There's no pattern to my morphing at all. Guess we're stuck with each other's company. At least it doesn't seem to go dark in this place." 

That was true enough: they'd been sat there for what seemed like hours, and the clinical light had not once wavered or dimmed. It was like being in a laboratory. That was not a pleasant thought, and Kurt shuddered involuntarily. 

He sat down beside her, a little uncomfortable still, but feeling a little more hopeful than he had done a few minutes ago. She looked at him piercingly for a few moments until he began to fidget. 

"You were following me, weren't you?" 

"Ah." 

"I thought so. Damn! Remy DIDN'T trust me!" She folded her arms and stuck out her lower lip, rather prettily, Kurt couldn't help thinking. 

"Nein, nein - it was me. I followed you of my own volition. Gambit does not know I am with you." 

She stared. "So YOU think I'm incapable, too?" 

"Nein! Anna - you are still new here. You are, no pun intended, wet behind the ears. I followed you to be sure for myself that you were safe. Is good job I did." 

She sagged a little. "The Professor was right, wasn't he?" 

"Ja, he nearly always is, I find." 

"I couldn't wait to get outside the mansion."

"Is very constricting sometimes, I know that."

"I wanted to be in the fresh air again." 

"For mutants like us, it is difficult to mingle with society." 

"I just wanted to be normal. Just for a few moments." 

"What is normal, Fräulein? Who's to say that we are not normal and the rest of the world is mutated?"

She shook her head. "How can you sit there and say that so calmly, no offence, looking like you do? You must have been treated so badly in your life." 

And Kurt told her. He told her about the circus, about how he had grown up as an accepted member of the carnival folk - until the day that Arnos Jardine, the Texan millionaire had suggested he switch from company acrobat to the freak wagon. 

Anna's eyes grew rounder with the horror of his story, the accidental death of his adoptive brother and the subsequent would-be lynching, the declaration that Kurt was a demon. 

"Oh, Kurt," she said, her eyes full of tears. "How selfish I've been. Here's me moaning about a couple of flaps of skin that I can cover up with my hair anyway..." She broke into sobs and flung her arms around his neck. 

"There now, Fräulein, you mustn't cry. It all worked out for me in the end."

She said nothing, but her sobs were choking in a way that sent his senses into overdrive. 

She was choking for breath.

"Our chance is now, Anna," he said, getting swiftly to his feet and wading into the water with her. Once she got water around her, the pain went out of her eyes and she swam away from him - like a salmon that slipped the net, Kurt thought, a little sadly. There was a keen hope in her eyes as she helped him through the water to the spot where the X-logo was floating. Kurt took a deep breath and ducked under the surface of the water. Once again, her lips met his, breathing precious air into his lungs. It was instinct, he told himself afterwards, that made him wrap his arms around her as he went for the teleport.

**Ba...  
BAm...  
BAMFfizzle... **

Aggrieved and troubled, he gestured to Anna to return him to the surface, which she did, the hope in her eyes flickering like a spent flame and dying. 

It all but broke his heart. 

"I will get you home," he declared. "But I'm thinking I need oxygen around me before I can teleport successfully. But if we have to start this under water..." 

Something lit up in Anna's eyes. "Trust me," she mouthed, catching hold of his hand and pulling herself out of the water. 

She broke the surface, her face full of abject concentration, and she pulled him to herself in a tight embrace. When they sank back down below the water, entwined, Kurt was suddenly aware that her lips did not touch his. He was breathing by himself. 

She had created an oxygen pocket in the water.

"But that means..." he said, staring at her. She nodded and gasped for air. Deprived of water, her gills were struggling as hard as her lungs had been only moments before. 

"One good turn deserves another, Anna." Kurt put his own lips to hers and returned the favour. 

**BAMF! **

All that remained in the other dimension was a single piece of cloth with an 'X' stitched to it. 

* * * 

"She ain't in her tank either, sugah," said Rogue to Remy, who had hunted desperately through the mansion, hoping and praying that the necklace he held in his hand was simply her idea of a sick joke. The Fed-Ex man had delivered it to him with no message, no anything. 

"Roguey, if anythin's happened t'her, Remy ain't never gon' forgive himse...." 

**BAMF! **

Two very wet and bedraggled X-Men materialised out of nowhere. The one covered in blue fur, the other... 

"Anna!" 

Her lips were still pressed to Kurt's and he picked her up in his arms and ran through the mansion, depositing her at last in her own tank where her tears were instantly lost in the warmth of the water. 

Remy and Rogue raced after him. "Now why the hell didn't the fuzzy elf jus' teleport himself here?" she wondered aloud as they entered the medlab where Anna's tank was. 

Kurt stood up straight and smiled at them. "Returned safe and sound, mein freund," he said, to Gambit, who dropped Anna's necklace into the tank for her.

She fastened it in to the receptors on her neck and clambered out the tank, whereupon she threw herself at Remy so hard that the Cajun almost fell over. 

"Aww, now ain't that cute?" said Rogue, nudging Kurt. 

"Ja. Very." 

"What th' hell happened, sugah?" 

"Rogue, do you mind if we discuss this later? It's been a hard afternoon." 

Rogue, her eyes never once leaving the emotional reunion in front of her nodded. "Sure, sugah, whatever you say."

Kurt smiled faintly at the closest thing he had to a sister and turned to leave the medlab. Before he exited, however, his eyes met Anna's and she recalled, just for the briefest second the intense passion that had been behind his kiss of life. Her heart went out to him and she tried to put everything she could in the smile she gave him over Remy's shoulder. 

"Ja, Fräulein," he murmured. "I know you do." 

He closed the door. 

**(c) S Watkins, 2000**

   [1]: mailto:sarah.watkins@onyx.net



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